


take me back off these streets and we'll never be apart

by Marvellous



Category: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Genre: Angst, Arguing, Jealousy, Kissing in the Rain, Love Confessions, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2020-10-25 19:25:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20729507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marvellous/pseuds/Marvellous
Summary: Mac and Dennis fight, Mac gets left on the side of the road in the pouring rain, Dennis says he's not coming back for him, but sometimes Dennis has trouble saying what he means.





	take me back off these streets and we'll never be apart

**Author's Note:**

> i guess i just like writing unrealistic romcom type scenarios for these two...my bad! 
> 
> not beta read, all mistakes are my own.
> 
> title from 'life in the city' by the lumineers. but actually i listened to 'time after time' by cyndi lauper and 'drive' by the cars while writing this.

It was nothing more than flirting, not really. Sure Mac would have gone home with the guy if the circumstances aligned in his favour, or gone home and jacked off to the thought of it at the very least, but Dennis halted any chance of either happening by butting in and telling him all about all the weird sexual shit Mac was into, which were all very much false for the record. There was no telling that to the dude, however, and Mac being flustered and embarrassed didn’t help the innocent image he was trying to portray.

After that, Dennis received his very own black eye, and in exchange, Mac became the recipient of scratches on his cheek and shoulder. It didn’t escalate any further before Dee was yelling at them to stop, calling them immature children, and true to her words, they hadn’t spoken to each other for the rest of the night. 

It was well past two in the morning by the time they hauled their tired bodies into the cab of Dennis’ range rover. The weather was dismal at best, and as soon as Dennis turned the key he had to start the windshield wipers in order to see the glistening streets they were going to drive home on. 

Mac sat in silence, cold but unwilling to be the first one to ask if he could turn up the heat, still bitter about the night’s turn of events. 

Meanwhile in Dennis’ head, that same anger refused to leave him, keeping his skin hot and his mind sharp just waiting for the right moment to snap. 

After a few minutes, Mac decided to reach over and adjust the temperature. 

Just as fast, Dennis turned the AC on full blast.

“If you wear shirts with the sleeves cut off, then you damn well deserve to freeze, pal,” Dennis quipped shortly as he turned the vehicle onto one of the larger roadways, assuming traffic would be next to non existent in this weather combined with the given time of night.

“Alright. Let me out.”

“What?

“I’m serious, let me out right goddamn now, bitch,” Mac yelled at Dennis as he gripped the range rover’s door handle, waiting for Dennis to slow down so he could make his escape.

Dennis didn’t slow down, “Are you insane? It’s pouring rain and we’re not even close to the apartment.” 

Mac refused to look over at Dennis, anger burning hot in his chest, “I’ll figure it out, just stop the car! I can’t even be around you right now.”

“You are the stupidest fuck. You can’t be around me? I have to put up with being around you all the time, do you hear me complaining?”

“Yes!” Mac cried, “You complain about me all the time, Dennis, and I can’t do it anymore. You literally ruin everything for me.”

Dennis paused, and in his brief loss for words, maneuvered the vehicle over to the shoulder of the road, the lack of traffic making it swift and easy.

Mac’s breaths were heavy, his shoulders falling as the pounding of the rain was suddenly deafening. He opened his mouth to say something that might save the situation after all, the prospect of walking home alone in the rain less appealing than it had been seconds ago.

“Get out!” Dennis shoved Mac when the other didn’t immediately get out, “I’m leaving you here. Don’t count on me coming back for you, either. Maybe you can find that loser from the bar and fuck him for a ride or something!”

Mac’s nose screwed up and the anger returned as quick as lightning, “Fine! Maybe I will!” 

He stumbled out of the vehicle and his feet hit the wet pavement just as Dennis sped off, the door still swinging shut as he did so. Mac was left in the spray of water from the tires, expression falling as he realized he got exactly what he wanted. Just because he told Dennis to leave him, truth be told, he didn’t actually think he would.

The scratches on his cheek stung, and if his eyes did too, the tears were indistinguishable from the rain. Seemed his emotions ran all sorts of ways these days, and not always just straight to anger. It was a whole thing. 

Having watched Dennis speed off, and with a sad check to his pockets realizing his phone was in the car, Mac started to walk, not even bothering to zig zag and avoid the puddles. He was already drenched anyways. What they were fighting over now seemed very small and distant, but the new hurt of being left alone was fresh. Sometimes he just wished he knew exactly what Dennis was thinking, or why certain things set him off, then maybe he could screw up a little less. 

Then again, maybe he wasn’t the one who was at fault for screwing up all the time to begin with.

A deep sigh left his lungs as he wiped the rain from his face, turning the same corner the car had and just as he wondered how long it would take him to get home, he stopped. 

Mac squinted against the rain assaulting his eyes and saw the blinking hazards of the range rover first, then out of nowhere, there was Dennis. 

His shoulders were squared and tense, eyebrows pinched with that seemingly permanent scowl. As he got closer, Mac could see his mascara was running. From the rain, of course.

“Den-” Mac started as he came within arms reach, ready for this to be over and just get a ride the rest of the way home. 

“Shut up,” Dennis growled, fisting the wet fabric of Mac’s shirt in one hand, desperate, “It’s not fair.”

Mac frowned, eyes unexpectedly gentle as he watched Dennis, sensing there was more and what was said was only small waves lapping at the shore.

“You came out, and everything changed. Don’t even bs me, you know it. You were supposed to stay the same. _We_ were supposed to stay the same! It was me and you against the world, man, and now you’re going to fuck off with whatever hot, rich piece of ass you find and it’s not fair! You can’t just leave me like that! I can’t do shit without you,” Dennis pushed at Mac weakly, his wet curls and bruised eye making him look somewhat pathetic.

“Leave you?” Mac’s voice rose an octave with shock, putting his hands on either side of Dennis’ neck and disregarding any need for personal space from the other, “You’re the one who left me! You went to North Dakota and wouldn’t even let me call you!”

“That’s different!” 

“How is that possibly different?”

“It-it just is, I don’t have to explain myself! I’m the one who’s upset here!” 

“Oh, excuse me,” Mac rolled his eyes. Dennis was floundering, and it just added fuel to the fire for him, “Don’t talk to me about abandoning you, when you know I would never. Everything I do, it’s all for you, and you-damn it, you’re such an asshole, Dennis.” 

Mac’s voice broke at the last sentence, turning his head away and letting his hands fall to Dennis’ shoulders in defeat. He could feel the other man’s heartbeat, erratic and lost, not unlike how he felt.

Stilling for a moment, Dennis let his hand drift to Mac’s bicep, the other sneaking under his chin and tilting his head back to look at him. 

His heart fell and Mac shook his head, “It’s just too much sometimes.”

Dennis swiped his thumb over Mac’s cheek and took a shaky breath, “I’m-you know what, I’m sorry, Mac.”

As much as Mac wanted to trust the lifeline he’d just been thrown, he knew if he pulled too hard it would fray and he’d be back to drowning as before. 

“I want to believe you,” Mac said quietly. 

“Then believe me,” Dennis’ fingers tightened around Mac’s arm, fingernails digging into his skin, “Believe me.”

Mac searched Dennis’ eyes, and instead of the blank listless glare he was used to, he found a fire burning somewhere in the depths of blue, one that even possibly matched his own. He put one hand back on Dennis’ neck and a small undignified sound left his lips.

Dennis drifted closer, biting his bottom lip. 

“No. No, this is just your sick game to make me stick around,” Mac said, hand splayed over Dennis’ chest, resolve slowly crumbling away beneath him, “Stop it.”

“What? No it isn’t,” Dennis said weakly, pushing closer so the warmth from their bodies was one and the same, “Trust me.”

Two sides were at war within Mac. One naive and stupid, the other wary and indifferent, “Why should I?”

Dennis faltered. Mac was here in front of him, and still he lost that confidence when he had to face the one truth he was most afraid to admit.

“Goddamn it, because I’m in love with you, asshole!”

There it was.

Mac’s heart rate tripled. 

It was ugly and loud and everything Mac ever wanted to hear Dennis say. Yet he was frozen, like a deer in headlights.

“Mac?” Dennis asked, voice lined with something Mac wasn’t familiar with.

“Just, um,” Mac started, leaning his forehead against Dennis’ temple, whispering even though there was no other soul to overhear them, “Just give me a second here, bro.”

Dennis’ body tensed one moment, and relaxed the next as he tangled his fingers in Mac’s damp hair, the other ghosting over the freckles on his shoulder. Everything save the pounding of rain on the pavement was silent. 

“I do love you,” Dennis repeated, almost just for himself this time, reaffirming it in his own mess of a brain, a realization all at the same time.

Mac let out a breath he’d been holding in his lungs, and he knew. Maybe it was cheesy, fuck, it was borderline chick-flickesque, but it was right, and it felt right. 

Their lips met easily, slotting together like they had kissed each other in the rain thousands of times before. And they both felt like kids again, no time wasted, only gained, and a whole ass lifetime ahead of them. Everything was new, and refreshing, and the rain no longer felt so cold and isolating, but clean.

“I love you too,” Mac breathed quickly, having held it in so long, he felt like he might pass out if he held it in a second longer, “I love you so much, dude. You have no idea.”

Dennis let a disbelieving huff past his lips, hint of a smile finding the corners of his eyes as he nuzzled into Mac’s neck. All at once, he was warm, home, and where he belonged. It was safe.

They were a pair of half-drowned rats stranded in a sea of possibility. The lifeboat they were on wasn't all that reliable, and riddled with all sorts of structural issues, but in hindsight, it was better than the prospect of drowning all alone.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! kudos/comments always greatly appreciated!


End file.
